UCFL Postgraduate Bursary

UCFL now hosts a PG bursary scheme. The bursary supports postgraduate students in the period immediately following submission of the thesis, to enable them to produce engagement materials based on the thesis research. The bursary aims to:

  1. Provide support for postgraduate students as they build their profile after submission of the thesis
  2. Support the production of exciting materials that showcase the value of Modern Languages research.

Postgraduate students are the future of the discipline and as a Modern Languages community we seek to offer support to those who have completed their thesis and face what can be a challenging period in seeking employment. The production of research-based engagement materials can be developmental, helping to boost the students’ own profile and support their career trajectory. The materials will also help to promote the value of Modern Languages research and reinforce the intrinsic link between the study of languages, cultures, and societies.

The bursary is for £800, to be paid in one instalment. There will be two cycles per year.

Intended outputs of the funding


The funding enables students to produce engagement material based on their research. The forms this could take are varied and there is lots of scope for innovation. The main criteria is that the research engages a wider audience beyond the academy. The materials developed might be aimed at specific groups (such as schools or special-interest community groups) or at a more general public. These might be physical resources or activities, exhibitions, film screenings, or public displays, digital resources or activities shared with specific groups, digital resources disseminated to a broad public through social media platforms, or other appropriate engagement activities and resources.

Eligibility and selection criteria


Students who have recently submitted or are due to submit a PhD thesis at a UK HEI are eligible. Funding will ideally be taken up within 6 months of submission of the thesis.
Applicants should:

  1. Provide a brief outline of their research (500 words)
  2. Explain how they intend to develop this into public engagement materials, outlining the intended audience (e.g. schools, the general public, special interest groups, specific community groups), the form of the materials/activity (e.g. physical resources, digital resources to be shared with specific groups, online resources to be disseminated broadly through social media platforms), and how these will engage the intended audience (500 words)
  3. Provide a brief outline of future aspirations and research plans, explaining how this project supports this trajectory (300 words).

The applications will be assessed by a panel drawn from the UCFL Steering Group. Selection will be based on:

  1. The excellence of the intended project
  2. The potential of the materials to engage the intended audience with the research
  3. The potential of the funding to support the applicant’s career development.

Applications for 2023 are currently closed.
Applicants can send informal enquiries to the UCFL Vice-Chair (Research) Liz Wren-Owens (wren-owensEA@cardiff.ac.uk ). Applicants may wish to be paired with a mentor through the UCFL Early Career Academic Short-Term Mentoring Scheme whilst preparing an application and/or whilst carrying out a funded project.